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Thomas Creech (1659 – found dead 19 July 1700) was an English translator of classical works, and headmaster of Sherborne School. Creech translated Lucretius into verse in 1682, for which he received a Fellowship at Oxford. He also produced English versions of Marcus Manilius, Horace, Theocritus, and other classics.
In Lent term 1675 Creech was admitted as a commoner at Wadham College, Oxford, and placed under the tuition of Robert Pitt. Creech's translation of one of the idylls of Theocritus is inscribed to his "chum Mr. Hody of Wadham College", and another is dedicated to Robert Balch, who at a later date was his "friend and tutor". Two of his letters are printed in Evelyn's Diary. He was elected a scholar of his college 28 September 1676, and took degrees: B.A. 27 October 1680, M.A. 13 June 1683, and B.D. 18 March 1696. He was a reputed scholar, and one of the first to benefit by William Sancroft's reforms in the elections for fellowships at All Souls' College, where he was elected a fellow in 1683.
For two years (1694–6) he was the headmaster of Sherborne School, but he then returned to Oxford, where a strangeness of manner was noticed in 1698. He accepted the college living of Welwyn, to which he was instituted 25 April 1699, but never entered into residence. After he had been missing for five days he was discovered (in July 1700) to have committed suicide in a garret in the house of Mr. Ives, an apothecary, with whom he lodged. He had wished to marry Miss Philadelphia Playdell of St. Giles, Oxford, but her friends would not consent to the marriage. In his will, dated 18 January 1699, and proved 28 June 1700, he divided his means into two parts, one of which he left to his sister Bridget Bastard for the use of his father during his lifetime and afterwards for herself, while he left the other moiety to Miss Playdell and appointed her sole executrix. She later married Ralph Hobson, butler of Christ Church, Oxford, and died in 1706, aged 34. He was also short of money.
There were printed after his death two tracts:
His portrait, three-quarters oval in a clerical habit, was given by Humphrey Bartholomew to the picture gallery at Oxford. It was engraved by R. White and also by Van der Gucht.
The success of his translation of Lucretius induced Creech to undertake an edition of the original work. It appeared in 1695 with the title 'Titi Lucretii Cari de rerum natura libri sex, quibus interpretationem et notas addidit Thomas Creech,' and was dedicated to his friend Christopher Codrington. This edition was also often republished, in particular at Glasgow in 1753. Creech's agreement with Abel Swalle for the preparation of this volume is among the Ballard MSS. at the Bodleian Library. H. A. J. Munro in his edition of LucretiusVol. i. 1886 ed. p. 17 of introduction. wrote of Creech as borrowing annotations mainly from Lambinus, attributing the popularity of the work to their clarity and brevity.
In 1684 Creech published 'The Odes, Satyrs, and Epistles of Horace. Done into English;' it was reprinted in the same year, and again in 1688, 1715, 1720, and 1737. Other translations by Creech consisted of:
Creech was engaged at the time of his death on an edition of Justin Martyr.
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